I also find it's harder for the defenders at u18s because most of the time they're so good for their age that they haven't faced consistent shifts of forwards actually coming at them. It's probably good for them to go to university early if they can.

yep, there was some zip missing in the canadians. got beat to pucks more than the previous games, stuff like that. they tried to lay the body early and it just backfired instantly. the americans also seemed to have the canadian pk solved/were able to find holes in hicks more easily. meanwhile i'm like "man, i can barely keep my eyes open after all this hockey the last few days" (would probably have fallen asleep tbh if i hadn't been on Lapointe Watch) and i'm just sitting down the whole time 😭

got this ask just after the first or second period, answering it postgame. my view of most of the american goals was this:

With the goalies it seems like Canada are having their starter play the back to back because at worlds the semis and finals are usually back to back so it’s good to practice.

ooh we realized they were running a 3D powerplay but not that it was a 3F pk. crazy work!! makes the 3v1 chance they allowed make more sense lol but also the aggressiveness and the short-handed chances.

nadine muzerall is the coach and the way she has her players forechecking and defending is crazy + adrianna milani has been the best player on the ice. the canadians are basically shutting down jane daley and chyna taylor, which i was Not expecting, but other than the one goal in game 1 i honestly haven't noticed daley much. (i've been talking her up to my twin since january so she knows that name and yesterday she's like "is daley doing anything? number 18? feel like i haven't seen her" lol.) watching taylor in person, you can tell that her hands and skating are on another level, but especially in game 1 i feel like she was bullied off the puck and giving up turnovers at bluelines a little too much. anyway, not letting those 2 get going is huge. the american player i feel like i've noticed the most is annabelle lovell with some great plays.

what won canada game 2 offensively speaking was the powerplay, which has basically been automatic (the americans took TWO too many men penalties, which is just an incredible unforced error lol). the pk was also suffocating, the usa was really hard-pressed to set up. canada also chose to start the same goalie, who i think they view as this generation's starter, for both games so far, and she was up to the task (the americans played their backup in game 2 for both the u18 and dev/college series, not that it made a difference in terms of goals going in).

by the end of the game i was really flagging (4th game in 2 days) so i stopped having useful observations other than like, muzerall is outcoaching the american coach like it's easy and her pants look great lol

fun fact, adrianna milani played in the summer series 2 years ago for the usa. man i'm glad she picked canada instead.